A 200,000-dwt floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, the largest of its kind in China, was launched earlier this week in Dalian, a coastal city in northeast Liaoning Province.

The vessel was built by the Dalian New Ship-Building Heavy Industry Company for use by the US petroleum giant Conoco in its development of the Belanak oilfield in Indonesia.

The ship, 285 meters long, 58 meters wide and 26 meters deep, was built according to US standards and will thus be able to resist strong typhoons and operate in a fixed position in 90-meter-deep water for 30 years, according to company officials.

It is designed with a processing capacity of 100,000 barrels of crude oil a day.

In recent years, the Dalian company has built offshore drilling platforms for domestic and overseas clients, in addition to two 150,000-dwt FPSO vessels for the China National Offshore Oil Corporation.

With the use of advanced FPSO technology, the company has achieved an average growth rate of 20 percent in annual output value from offshore engineering projects.

(Xinhua News Agency March 29, 2003)